More than 6 million votes in Big Ten mascots poll: Are you kidding me?

After five days of voting, the results of the Big Ten mascot poll are in.

The turnout and the results are equally stunning.

As of early Friday morning, more than 7 million votes have been cast. (A typical Chicago Sports poll generates between 500 and 2,000 votes.)

The poll generated a nearly 240,000 page views on chicagotribune.com, but those numbers did not correlate to the votes. We can only assume that some bored computer engineering majors played a role – and to that, we say: Well done!

The winner, by a landslide, is Purdue Pete (74 percent of the vote). Pete wins despite the fact, or perhaps because, in the Monday Main Event on the Tribune's Smack Page, it was ranked last among Big Ten mascots. The comment was: "Might be the creepiest mascot ever created."